Sunday is the best day of the week.

I remember as a kid how much I dreaded Sunday, though. It meant 3 hours of sitting still in church, no playing with friends and torturous rides in the ol' J Vanagon (a death trap for someone who got as carsick as I did.)

Now I finally understand that it is really a day to take a break from life. I've been fortunate to have most of my Sundays off of work this month. I come home from church (must say it's still somewhat difficult to sit for 3 hours) and quite literally proceed with my day of rest by taking a 3-4 hour nap. I've also enjoyed blogging on Sunday (I am terrible at remembering to write in my journal and have found that this has sort of become my outlet) and catching up on everyone else's blogs. Also, when S and I are both home he usually makes dinner. If he's not (such is the case tonight) it's leftover night. Tonight I intend to single-handedly eat half of a pizza waiting in our fridge.

So for someone who is always busy doing something, Sunday is the day I give myself permission to do absolutely nothing. And I love it!

~

I am amazed at how smoothly Christmas went this year. I vowed to simplify the whole gift-giving thing and just enjoy myself (in case you missed that sentiment in my two previous posts.)

I usually go nuts when it comes to presents for S. He does so much for me year-round that it is fun to spoil him when it comes to Christmas morning. This year he mentioned that my presents would be few in number due to their nature. I sort of took this to heart and tried to get him things that he would really need. It was so refreshing! I started his main gift in July but couldn't post its progress on here (for obvious reasons):

He needed a better blanket to take with him to the firestation and the one I made him several years ago would have gotten him laughed out of the station. This one is a little more masculine. Luckily he forgot to take it with him this morning so my afternoon nap was spent cuddled up in this thing and I must tell you that it is super-comfortable. I think I'm going to have to make one for myself now.

Thanks to this Christmas, my craft room received some great additions as well!

I've wanted to get some vinyl wall art to inspire my space so when I found this at Festival of Trees a few weeks ago, I knew it was perfect. I waited until Friday to put it up. I've never hung vinyl before. The instructions were sort of confusing but once I figured out that it was a giant rub-on, it was easy!

My parents fulfilled wish #3.1 from my 10/26 post: the ribbon organizer! This thing is huge! Non-crafters may not understand the elation I felt as I neatly organized all of my ribbon the day after Christmas. It was such a high! Although I am now aware at how many spools of ribbon I am lacking and am quite positive that I will be giving American Crafts a lot of business in the next few months.

And the creme de la creme:

We have this "tradition" on the J side of the family to see if we can make my mom cry when she opens her gift (success again this year, by the way.) Don't know why I'm admitting this, but I guess I'm turning into my mom. I've wanted a sewing machine for a really long time but I never expected anything this nice and am incredibly impressed that S picked it out without any help. I think as the tears started to well up in my eyes I choked out, "It's the one that Martha Stewart uses!"

So on my journey to domestication, my goal on my next week off is to pick up a very easy pattern and sew something that somewhat resembles the picture on the front of the pattern. I'm not sure what yet. Maybe a pillow case or something...